Time Off
by Wunderwrite20
Summary: Hope stumbles in on Lightning's night off and the poor kid can't seem to do anything right.


_**Hope stumbles in on Lightning's night off and the poor kid can't seem to do anything right.**_

**All credit goes to Square Enix and all that. Enjoy!**

The rain poured down relentlessly on the GC soldier as she trudged up the stairs of her home. Gusts of strong wind nearly toppled her over as she fumbled with the keys in her hands.

"Come on. Which one-?" she grumbled to herself trying to locate the appropriate key among many others, all hung around a small metal clasp.

Her eyes narrowed and a devious smile crossed her face.

"There you are."

She thrust the key into the lock and pushed the door open, though with the wind it blew it open more than she had intended and with her hand still on the knob was pulled inside forcefully nearly tripping over the threshold.

"Ah! Stupid-!" Lightning slammed the door shut throwing her shoulder into it to counteract the blowing wind outside.

She stood in the quiet of her doorway as the storm continued to rage on. Shaking out her hair and letting out a small shiver she flipped the light switch and dropped her backpack onto the couch, making her way to the kitchen for a warm drink. As she searched the cabinets her cell rang.

"Ugh, just one thing after another." Hello? She complained swiping out her phone and flipping it open with more force than was necessary.

"Hello? Lightning? That you?" A voice on the line asked.

Lightning instinctively straightened her posture and despite the absence of her commanding officers presence, saluted.

"Sir, Yes Sir."

Amodar chuckled to himself on the line.

"At ease soldier. You only need to salute if I'm there. Not at my voice."

Lightning lowered her hand, embarrassed at the gesture and relaxed, leaning against the counter as she brewed some coffee, pacing around the kitchen for the ingredients.

"Sorry Sir. Can I help you?"

"Just letting you know I'm giving you the week off."

Lightning bumped her head on the counter forgetting about her search for a coffee cup in one of the lower cabinets.

"What? But Sir-" she protested but was cut off by Amodar's voice.

"I don't want to hear it Farron. You haven't had a day off in months and I've been getting pressure from higher up about GC morale. They say it's important for the troops to get free time to avoid excessive stress.

"Yes but sir. I really don't need it. I'm fine."

"I know. You tell me that every time I bring up the subject. But I'm afraid you don't have a choice. If you show up for work anytime this week I'll have to report you."

Lightning stammered into her phone, trying to find the words to convince him otherwise but no sound came.

"Farron?"

"Uh yes. Yes sir. I understand."

"Good. Now have a good week off ok? Don't do what you did last time and attempt to sneak into Administration swiping the papers involving our vacation protocol.

"Very well sir. I will. Have a good week I mean. Not the other part." She quickly added just to make her reply clear.

"Alright. Good night then."

With that, he hung up and Lightning listened to the dial tone for a moment before snapping her phone closed. She stood in silence in her kitchen. The patter of rain could be heard outside against her house. The coffee machine bubbled behind her giving off a warm scent.

"Well, may as well change." She said to herself and pulled off her GC jacket and boots tossing them into a chair. Heading for her bedroom her phone suddenly rang again. She flipped it open.

"Hello?"

"Light! It's me!" a rather frantic Hope said on the other end.

"I know. What's the matter?" she asked noting the panic in his voice as she poured herself a cup of coffee and completely forgetting to change out of her wet clothes.

"Snow and Serah are at it again! You gotta let me come over or I'll go crazy!"

"They're fighting?" Lightning asked a little more hopefully than she had intended.

"No! Getting all lovey dubby around me. It's weird and I don't want to be here when they really get at it."

"Oh." She was a little disappointed. "Yes ok you can come over just let me know-"

Before she could finish her front door swung open with wind and rain pelting inside and in tumbled a drenched Hope putting his phone back into his pocket. He pushed the door shut desperately against the wind.

"Whew thanks Light you're a real lifesaver." He said shaking the rain from his silver hair and ringing out his green scarf getting Lightning's clean floor all wet.

She traced the drops of water as they fell from Hope's scarf resisting the urge to grab a towel and dry her perfect floor. Hope didn't seem to notice the mess he was making as he nudged next to her grabbing the coffee pot and a mug for himself.

"Hope!" she exclaimed slapping her phone shut and stealing the coffee back from the young boy.

"What?" he replied, his eyes wide with curiosity, trying to reach back for the coffee completely oblivious to the abruptness of his intrusion.

"First of all you're too young to be drinking this stuff." She dumped the remaining coffee down the sink as Hope watched sullenly, a hand slightly reaching for it in vain.

"But it's just coffee."

"It'll stunt your growth shorty."

Hope looked up at Light, taken aback by the sudden insult.

"Short-?"

"Secondly, why were you calling me from right outside my door? You could have just knocked."

"Well." Hope began a little embarrassed, his cheeks going slightly pink. "I thought that if you said yes then at least this way it wouldn't take me so long to get here and then we'd have more time tonight to do stuff."

Lightning eyed him for a moment, her eyes squinted as if looking through him for signs of an alternate reason. He just looked back, his round eyes looking desperate and pleading. She let out a sigh. She could never resist that look he gave. She ran a hand through her hair.

"Ok you can stay."

Hope beamed in happiness giving Lightning a huge smile.

"But only for tonight." She clarified.

Hope nodded silently in agreement, still a huge smile on his boyish face.

"And no coffee. It'll stunt your growth even more." She joked gently flicking his forehead.

"I'm not short. I'm only 14 Light." He grumbled, folding his arms.

"Well unless you want to stay 14 stay away from it." She patted his hair and turned towards the fridge. Hope perked up immediately at the pat like a little puppy.

"It'll be so much fun Light. We'll stay up late, watch movies." He said happily following her to the table as she placed some food out for the two of them.

Lightning couldn't help but smile at the energetic Hope. Where did he get all the energy? Being around Hope was like being around Serah. A constant flow of sunlight seemed to radiate from those two.

Hope smiled back, happy he was able to get a smile out of her. She didn't smile much so when she did Hope sucked in the image. He couldn't understand why. She looked even more beautiful when she did and it made Hope feel incredible.

"Ok Mr. Sounds like you've been doing some planning behind my back." She placed a plate of toast and butter in Hope's seat and the same for her as she took her chair across from him.

"Oh I got a ton of ideas of what we could do." He muffled through mouthfuls of the toast.

She let out a giggle at the sight of Hope chowing down like a little kid.

"Take it easy. You don't want to make yourself sick."

Hope mumbled something incoherent and munched some more on the toast. Lightning watched him quietly, the faintest smile crossing her face. Hope caught her looking at him. His cheeks still bulging with toast he held the gaze, eyes curious.

"Mwhat?" he asked.

"You're cute kid." She just said flicking a crumb at him, munching on a small bite of her own toast.

"I'm hungry." He mumbled again. "I can't help it."

Lightning stood.

"Well sit tight for a minute. I need to go change. If you want some more to eat help yourself to whatever you can find in the fridge."

She closed the door to her room leaving Hope still munching on toast, his eyes following her until the door broke his view of her. A moment later he heard the zipper of her sweater and the silent ruffle of her clothes as she undressed.

Thoughts entered his mind of Lightning undressing only a few feet away from him but he shook his head vigorously, trying to dismiss them. "Don't do anything stupid Hope." He said to himself. But he couldn't help himself looking at the door imagining her pulling off her wet clothes from her curvaceous body.

Hope smacked himself. "Not helping."

A moment later and he could hear the shower in her bedroom spray to life. Hope choked on his piece of toast. She was taking a shower! Hope sprung to his feet, toast still in hand and paced around nervously. "No no don't think about it Hope." He kept telling himself. And yet images still persisted of the beautiful Lightning.

Hope didn't know what to do. He munched faster and faster on the toast furiously desperate to control himself. He needed to find some way to distract himself, but what? 

He looked around, eyes searching frantically. Then he spotted it.

"Perfect! Just the thing." He exclaimed.

Lightning let out a sigh and a soft smile as the hot water washed over her. She reached her arms above her and stretched, letting the hot steam relieve her tight muscles. The pouring rain had chilled her and she hadn't realized just how cold she was until the water hit her. It felt so nice, so relaxing and calming and-

CRASH!

She paused for a moment, wiping away a strand of pink from her face and gazing towards the door.

"Hope?" she called out.

"Oops." He squeaked.

Hope had just gotten the idea of fixing some hot chocolate for the both of them and set about his way grabbing the necessary things. Unfortunately thanks to his clumsiness a mug went crashing to the floor and shattered into large, sharp pieces.

Oh great, now he'd done it. He stared at the small mess of glass, slapping a hand to his face.

"How hard can it be making freaking hot chocolate?" He complained.

He froze as Lightning's voice broke his thoughts.

"Hope? Are you okay?"

"Uh-oh." He quickly went for the glass, clanging the pieces together noisily in his haste, desperate to clean the mess up before Lightning caught him.

"I'm fine! Don't come out yet!"

"What are you-?"

Hope dropped the glass pieces once again, startled by Lightning.

"Don't worry! Nothing's broken! Don't come out yet!" he urged much more panicky than he'd intended.

"Ho-ope!" she could feel her patience failing as the panicked boy scrambled the floor attempting to grab every little piece he could find.

The shower shut off.

Hope flinched in fear falling onto his bottom, his panicked eyes shooting towards the door to Lightning's room. And sure enough the knob turned and the door swung open.

Dressed in shorts and a wet black tank top Lightning glared down at the boy, her wet hair still dripping onto her shoulders. She surveyed the chaotic scene. Broken glass lay on the floor, the cabinets hung open on their hinges. A chair was misplaced from the table, propped up against the counter where a higher cabinet rested. And in the center of it all was Hope, his eyes filled with fear and broken glass shards in his hands.

She crouched down in front of the culprit and looked him straight in the eye.

"What's going on kiddo?"

He looked into her eyes like a deer caught in the headlights of a car.

"Uh…..i….uh…."

His voice faltered into a squeak. He moved his lips to speak by no sound came out. All he could muster was gaping at Lightning like a dead fish.

"Yes?" she persisted,

Hope let out a nervous chuckle.

"Got any glue?"

Lightning couldn't help but release a small snort. She covered her lips quickly, her face turning slightly pink. Hope seemed to perk up a little and even managed a weak smile himself.

"Glue huh?"

"Heheh, uh, yeah. Glue. Got any glue?"

Still smiling she got to her feet pulling open a drawer and tossing Hope a small bottle of glue.

"Better get started short stuff."

20 min. later….

Lightning sipped on her cup of hot chocolate as Hope concentrated intently on a half assembled mug sitting on the table. Carefully he placed the next piece in its spot, giving it a light push.

"I don't think that piece goes there Hope." She said observing the odd placement of the shard.

"What? Yes it does. See? This side is shaped like a…..like a…..what is that shaped like?" he asked bewildered at the odd shape.

"Uh. Well it could be…."

The two looked at the sliver of glass, not sure exactly what it looked like. If anything at all for that matter.

"Snow's face?" Hope finished looking towards Lightning.

There was a pause as Lightning met Hope's gaze. Then they both broke out in laughter, the mug, as if sensing it would never be completed, fell apart in despair on the wooden table where the two continued their fits of laughter.

Meanwhile….

"Achooo!" Snow sneezed violently.

"Wow Snow are you okay?" a panicked Serah asked, feeling her husband's forehead.

"I'm fine Serah. I think someone's talking about me."

**There we go =) Hope you all enjoyed that one. (even if it seemed a little…pointless?) I dunno maybe. But I had to get it down one way or the other. As always constructive criticism is appreciated. Nay sayers keep your nays to yourself please. **


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